Its D-Day for the Osun State governorship election as fixed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); no fewer than 1, 900, 000 voters across the 30 local government areas of Osun State are expected to file out today, Saturday 16th July to elect the state governor for the next four years.
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According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there are 15 candidates in the race for the governorship position.
It also noted that five National Commissioners and 12 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) had been deployed to ensure the conduct of a credible election.
Besides, 35 serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members with one form of disability or another have been identified, trained and engaged as ad-hoc staff at the polling unit level.
Also, the inspector-general of police Usman Alkali Baba said appropriate security measures have been put in place with the deployment of over 21,000 personnel, including a deputy inspector-general of police (DIG), assistant inspectors-general (AIGs), and commissioners of police to all the 332 wards which covered three senatorial districts and nine federal constituencies.
Despite the fact that there are 15 candidates on the ballot paper, it is speculated by observers that the battle is going to be between the incumbent Governor Adegboyega Oyetola who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The battle line between Ademola and Adeleke was drawn during the 2018 gubernatorial election, when the outcome did not favour Senator Ademola Adeleke who was fielded by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Adeleke had defected with his elder brother, the late Isiaka Adeleke, first civilian governor of Osun State and two-term Senator representing Osun West Senatorial District from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) prior to the 2014 Osun gubernatorial election, in which Senator Iyiola Omisore of the PDP was thrashed by the incumbent governor Rauf Aregbesola.
In 2017, the elder Adeleke died suddenly and his senatorial position became vacant. The sympathy was for somebody in the Adeleke clan or preferably from Ede to continue till 2018 but the governor, Rauf Aregbesola thought otherwise and the APC fielded Mudashir Hussein who was by then a serving Commissioner for Federal Matters in the State and who also hails from Ejigbo in the same Osun West Senatorial District.
The battle line was drawn and at the end of the bye-election, Ademola Adeleke who had earlier decamped again to the opposition PDP, having been denied the ticket in the APC, won massively.
Out of 10 local governments in the senatorial district, Adeleke and the PDP won in 9 and Hussein and the APC only managed to win in one, Ejigbo local government which coincidentally is the local government of origin of Mudashir Hussein who himself had earlier been a Senator representing Osun West Senatorial District and was asked to step down for Isiaka Adeleke in the 2015 general election.
It was this outcome of the by-election that preceded the 2018 gubernatorial election in the State. The ruling APC did not consider Ademola Adeleke in their calculations. They made it abundantly clear to him that Osun West was different from the whole of Osun.
The Osun APC arsenal was rather directed at Iyiola Omisore of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) having contested with the incumbent governor and lost in 2014.
On election day, September 22, 2018, it was to the surprise of everybody that Ademola Adeleke, whose pre-election calculations did not favour, came out leading by 353 votes before it was declared inconclusive by the INEC returning officer for the election, Joseph Adeola Fuwape.
A rerun election was directed to be held on Thursday, September 27, 2018, and at the end of the exercise, after allegations of massive electoral fraud, vote buying and voter intimidation, Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC was declared the winner and issued with the certificate of return and was sworn in as governor of the State on November 27, 2018.
Oyetola was sworn in, but the PDP decided to challenge the outcome at the election petition tribunal.
The outcome of the tribunal was also a vindication that the PDP had a case, but the APC machinery went into motion and after going through the Appellate and Supreme Court, Oyetola won and retained his seat as governor.
From 2019 to 2021, it seemed that there was quiet in the State as Senator Ademola Adeleke took time off to acquire a university education and Adegboyega Oyetola concentrated on governance, but in so doing fell out with his former boss, Rauf Aregbesola who is the current Minister of Interior.
Come 2020 as the election activities picked up again in Osun, the old wounds re-opened.
Senator Adeleke indicated interest again in being the flagbearer of the party, as well as Dotun Babayemi, Dele Adeleke, Sanya Omirin, Akin Ogunbiyi and Fatai Akinbade.
Ademola Adeleke emerged as the Osun PDP gubernatorial candidate after the primaries, with Akin Ogunbiyi also defecting to the Accord Party.
As it is, both candidates, Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC and Ademola Adeleke of the PDP are battle ready for the July 16 gubernatorial election.
Without saying it, both camps know the battle is not between the two political parties, but rather between two individuals who have scores to settle.
There has been no love lost between the two major contending parties. To the PDP, they are up against the APC and others while to the APC, they are up against the PDP and others.
Both parties and candidates are at daggers drawn and are doing everything possible to sway the electorates to their side. They have used persuasion, coercion, allegations, accusations, emotional antics and sometimes violence to sway voters’ sympathy.
As in 2018, the odds are not in anyone’s favour as both sides of the divide have advanced reasons they are sure of winning the polls.
While the PDP is claiming that the APC has overstayed their welcome and that the State needed a change of guard, the APC on their part insists all they have achieved within the past twelve years is enough to return them since there is a need to complete the job they had started.
As the state began to wind up in preparation for the election, markets in the state were besieged yesterday by residents who went to buy essential items ahead of the polls.
The shopping created traffic logjams at major junctions like Oke-fia, Orita-Ayetoro and Oja-Oba areas of Osogbo, the state capital.
Heavy security presence was also conspicuous as preparations for the election heightened.
Armed military and police personnel patrolled the streets while others were deployed in strategic places.
The INEC office on Gbongan/Osogbo Road was heavily manned by security officers.
The police alone have 21,000 of their officers on the ground for the exercise and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has 11,226.
The Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of policing for the election, Mr. Johnson Kokumo, pledged yesterday that the security agencies would ensure a peaceful election.
He said cultists, in particular, would not be given any room to disrupt the polls.
“We’ve been able to make adequate arrangements to take care of the possible consequences of the activities of the cultists. That is effecting their arrest before the election and, of course, mopping up light weapons in circulation,” Kokumo told Channels Television.
“This is intended to create a conducive atmosphere where the gubernatorial election will take place without crisis,” he said.
No fewer than 15 such cultists, according to him, had been arrested as at yesterday.
He also said police escorts of VIPs and top politicians had complied with an order to relinquish their arms ahead of the poll while any policeman found without his name tag close to polling units would be arrested.
Similarly, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has deployed 1,500 personnel, 35 vehicles and two trucks and ambulances to clear road obstructions, carry out rescue operations in case of emergencies and maintain orderliness in polling booths.
However, personnel of the State Security Network otherwise known as Amotekun will not be part of the electoral duties after a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo yesterday granted an order that they be excused from security work on the day.
The order was sequel to a suit filed by the PDP against INEC and the security outfit seeking the exclusion of Amotekun from deployment during the election.
In granting the PDP request, Justice Ayo Emmanuel said: “The 1st defendant (INEC) is hereby restrained from requesting the deployment of the second defendant (Amotekun) as part of the security personnel deployable for the purpose of Osun 2022 governorship election pending the determination of the originating summons filed in the suit.”
Reacting to the development, the Field Commander of Amotekun, Comrade Amitolu Shittu, asked the corps members to “conduct themselves in a peaceful manner devoid of any controversy as the law has no respect for violators. “
He added: “The Area Commanders and Local Government Commanders of Amotekun in Osun State must conduct and organise the men under them very peacefully.
“You are to perform your civic right in mufti. Do not go to any polling unit with any material except your voter card. Remember to have with you all your tested and confirmed African science materials.
“All your observations and reports must be sent to #Amotekunosunsituationbase. In case any of you foresee or discover any looming crisis in your polling unit of observation, you are to relay the information to the Police officer around, the Department of State Security Service officer and other accredited professional security officers saddled with election monitoring responsibilities.”
FURTHER READING:
No vehicular movement from 6am to 4pm
The Osun State Government in a statement yesterday said there would be no vehicular movement in the state between 6am and 4pm today “except those on essential electoral duties.”
Also exempted are “vehicles passing through Osun to other states.”
Secretary to the State Government, Wole Oyebamiji, asked residents not to entertain any fear about the election as adequate security is guaranteed for all law-abiding citizens.
Resist unethical behaviour, INEC Boss tells Commission staffers
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu urged the commission‘s staff to resist any unethical behaviour during the election.
Yakubu, in a message, appealed to them to uphold the INEC Code of Conduct, display usual sense of commitment and professionalism.
He recalled how, last month, INEC conducted and concluded the Ekiti governorship election that was widely adjudged to be free, fair, credible and inclusive.
According to him, the feat was happily an elongation of the earlier successes recorded in Edo on September 15, 2020; Ondo State on October 10, 2020 and in Anambra on November 6, 2021.
He said: “The sheer determination, resilience and competence displayed by all of you, our members of staff, made it possible for the Commission to achieve these lofty goals.
“As you are aware, the Osun State governorship election will hold on Saturday.
“I have assured our stakeholders and the people of Osun State that the Commission will not do anything to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate.
“We have made adequate arrangements for the election. We have promised a level playing field for all. The security agencies have assured us of safety,” Yakubu said.
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